1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for displaying, manipulating, and selecting multimedia or computer stored information. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved user interface for a variety of applications, including but not limited to a multi-media video and audio editing system.
2. Art Background
Over the past decade, a variety of graphical user interfaces have been developed to ease human interaction with computer systems. Many display systems utilize metaphors in the design of the interface as a way of maximizing human familiarity, and conveying information between the user and the computer. It is common for computer systems incorporating so-called "object oriented" display systems to utilize multiple "windows" on a display in which combinations of text and graphics are disposed. The display systems utilize familiar metaphors, such as desktops, control panels, notebooks and the like, such that the interface takes advantage of existing human mental structures to permit a user to draw upon the metaphor analogy to understand the requirements of the particular computer system.
It is well known that designing around a familiar metaphor helps reduce human learning time. (See for example, Patrick Chan, "Learning Considerations in User Interface Design: The Room Model", Report CS-84-16, University of Waterloo Computer Science Department, Ontario, Canada, July, 1984, and the references cited therein.) The ability to operate on images or objects which relate the user to actual objects on, for example, a desktop, results in a stronger man-machine interface. (See for example, D. Robson, "Object Oriented Software Systems", BYTE, August 1991, page 74, Vol. 6, No. 8; L. Tesler, "The Smalltalk Environment", BYTE, August 1981, page 90, Vol. 6, No. 8; and Smith, et al., "Star User Interface: An Overview", National Computer Conference, 1982; Jeffrey J. Blatt, "A Primer on User Interface Patents," The Computer Lawyer, April 1992, Vol. 9 No. 4.
Research in interface design using metaphors in man-machine interfaces may be applied to computer controlled editing systems to incorporate and integrate various production media resources, such as special effects, music, graphics and the like. In the case of an editing system, a variety of resources must be integrated, scheduled and coordinated with one another to obtain a complete multi-media product. It is therefore desirable to allow a user to perform these functions, integration, scheduling and coordination, with a minimum of operations. Further, it is desirable to allow the user to coordinate a variety of interrelated functions and to provide a display that allows the user to view the association between a function and the element the function is to affect.
These goals, minimizing operations, coordination and association, are important for a wide variety of applications apart from the context of a video editor. The present invention achieves these goals for a video editor and a wide variety of other applications.